Bitcoin (BTC) continued to struggle on Thursday as it fought to stay above $80,000. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is currently down 3% on the day. It has declined 13% in the first quarter and is about 30% off its all-time high from January. According to Glassnode data, short-term holders — investors who have … Read more
Cryptocurrency app MoonPay, has acquired Iron, an API-focused stablecoin infrastructure platform, the company said in a press release Thursday. The acquisition will significantly increase Moonpay’s enterprise offerings, the Miami-based company said, and will allow businesses to accept stablecoin payments. No acquisition price was given, but a report said the deal was worth at least $100 … Read more
After the meekest of rallies yesterday following some soft inflation numbers, U.S. stocks Thursday are once again headed sharply lower and apparently pulling bitcoin (BTC) along for the ride. Just ahead of the noon hour on the east coast, the Nasdaq is lower by 1.7% and the S&P 500 by 1.2% After pushing to nearly … Read more
Memecoins have been in the news lately, primarily driven by the launch of the President’s $Trump coin. Recently, the U.S. SEC clarified that, for the most part, memecoins are not securities as they don’t meet the Howey test. That doesn’t mean clients won’t be asking questions about these assets, though. So in today’s crypto for … Read more
U.S. crypto lobbyists watched with excitement in recent days as a pair of votes cemented what they’d hoped: Congress is on their side. The industry that battled with pariah status just three years ago has staunch allies now in the White House and inside the U.S. financial agencies, and the recent votes in the Senate … Read more
One of the leading U.S. advocates for decentralized finance (DeFi), Miller Whitehouse-Levine, is departing his job as executive director of the DeFi Education Fund, where he’ll be replaced by the group’s chief legal officer, Amanda Tuminelli. Whitehouse-Levine, a fixture in U.S. crypto circles, will remain on the organization’s board, according to a Thursday announcement, and … Read more
In late 2021, two DeFi DAOs — Fei Protocol and Rari Capital — embarked on what was supposed to be a transformative merger. The idea was simple: Fei, with its algorithmic stablecoin, would join forces with Rari, a pioneer in permissionless lending pools, to create a DeFi powerhouse governed by a single DAO. Their communities … Read more
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA-D) recently sounded the alarm over new proposals on stablecoin legislation, claiming they’d give Elon Musk a “clear runway” to control U.S. money and payments. If that sounds overly-dramatic, it’s because it is. Here’s what these bills actually do: the GENIUS Act and the STABLE Act aim to create responsible guardrails for stablecoins, … Read more
Circle Internet Group, Inc., the company behind the $58 billion USDC stablecoin, said on Thursday it plans to bring its recently acquired Hashnote Tokenized Money Market Fund (TMMF) under Bermuda’s regulatory oversight. The fund, which manages nearly $1 billion assets, will be incorporated into Circle’s existing Digital Assets Business Act (DABA) license, the company said … Read more
Wall Street bank JPMorgan (JPM) updated its bitcoin (BTC) miner price targets and estimates following fourth-quarter 2024 results and to account for changes in the bitcoin price and the network hashrate. JPMorgan raised IREN (IREN), its top pick in the sector, to overweight from neutral, and cut its price target to $12 from $15. The … Read more
Imagine a world where every dollar you spend is tracked, approved, or denied in real time by a government agency. You attempt to send money to a friend for a political donation, but the transaction is blocked because the recipient is on a government “watch list.” You buy a book critical of a powerful politician … Read more
A Trump family representative held talks to buy a stake in Binance’s U.S. arm, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Thursday. The stake could have been acquired through Trump-family backed crypto project World Liberty Financial, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Steve Witkoff, a friend of the U.S. president, was … Read more
CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index. The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2605.49, up 1.5% (+37.28) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Eighteen of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: XLM (+11.6%) and NEAR (+3.7%). Laggards: BCH (-5.3%) and LTC (-0.8%). … Read more
Crypto trading volumes dropped sharply in February as concerns that President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada and other countries would stifle international trade reduced investor demand for adding to risky investments. Combined spot and derivatives trading volume on centralized exchanges fell 21% to $7.2 trillion, the lowest level since October, according to CoinDesk Data’s … Read more
The Solana proposal, called SIMD-0228, which could cause a drastic drop in SOL’s inflation rate, had the support of 37.8% of the network validators at press time. Per Dune Analytics, 746 validators, equating to nearly 58% of the total active validators of 1334 have voted on the proposal. 37.8% voted in favor of the proposal, … Read more
Ether (ETH) has fallen 43% year-to-date, it hit a 2025 high of $3,744 before dropping to its current level of $1,899. According to CryptoQuant CEO, Ki Young Ju, ether has experienced record levels of active selling over the past three months—the highest in the last five years. CoinDesk research indicates that the ether-to-bitcoin (ETH/BTC) ratio … Read more
Bitcoin (BTC) staking platform Solv has raised $10 million for its Bitcoin Reserve Offering (BRO) as it aims to build a $100 million BTC reserve. BRO merges aspects of traditional convertible bonds with crypto-native features to drive institutional adoption of BTC finance, according to an emailed announcement shared with CoinDesk on Thursday. Solv is attempting … Read more
Disclaimer: The analyst who wrote this piece owns shares of Strategy (MSTR). Strike (STRK), the preferred stock issued by bitcoin buyer Strategy (MSTR) has been listed for just over a month and is currently 3% higher than at its Feb. 5 introduction. Strategy’s common stock, on the other hand, is 20% lower over the same … Read more
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) The crypto market has steadied over the past two days, with bitcoin briefly topping the 200-day simply moving average at $84,000 early today. Wednesday’s softer-than-expected U.S. CPI release aided the sentiment by validating traders’ pricing of four interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year. The … Read more
A lawyer in Argentina has requested an international arrest order for Hayden Davis, the founder of memecoin LIBRA, Buenos Aires newspaper Pagina 12 reported on Thursday. Attorney Gregorio Dalbon raised the procedural risk of U.S. citizen Davis remaining at large and of his financial resources allowing him to stay in hiding, according to the report. … Read more
Ripple said on Thursday that it had received approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to provide regulated crypto payments and services in the UAE, becoming the first blockchain-enabled payments provider licensed by the agency. “We are entering an unprecedented period of growth for the crypto industry, driven by greater regulatory clarity around the … Read more
The crypto market appears to have stabilized however traders are proceeding with caution while dealing with altcoins, like XRP, while continuing to rotate money into market leader bitcoin (BTC). Payments-focused XRP, which Ripple uses to facilitate cross-border payments, has risen over 3% to $2.24 in the past 24 hours primarily on hopes that the legal … Read more
Imagine a world where your digital identity is truly your own, where every post, connection, and interaction isn’t locked within the walls of a corporate platform but exists as an extension of your personal autonomy. This isn’t a utopian vision, it’s the necessary evolution of social media in an era where digital sovereignty is a … Read more
Attendees clapped and cheered when Paolo Ardoino, the public face of perhaps most influential company in crypto, entered the stage at the Cantor Fitzgerald Global Technology Conference in New York on Wednesday. Ardoino stood out from the crowd, not for his wealth but for his choice of attire. While others dressed to impress, he opted … Read more
Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, CoinDesk’s Ethereum Reporter. In this issue: Ethereum’s Holesky Testnet Finalizes – Finally Starknet to Settle on both Bitcoin and Ethereum From Ethereum’s Engine Room to Wall Street: Danny Ryan’s New Mission Japanese Tech Giants Sony and … Read more
The crypto sector was mostly flat for the day, as a short rally following better than hoped U.S. inflation data quickly lost steam. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $82,800, down 0.5% in the last 24 hours. The CoinDesk 20 — an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies excluding exchange coins, stablecoins and memecoins — is … Read more
One of the operators of sanctioned Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex was arrested in India on Tuesday, according to two recent news reports. Lithuanian national and Russian resident Aleksej Besciokov, 46, was reportedly arrested by police in the Indian state of Kerala, while vacationing on the country’s southern coast with his family, Techcrunch and KrebsonSecurity reported. … Read more
Crypto exchange OKX Europe has acquired a Malta-licensed firm with a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) license, bringing it a step closer to offering regulated derivatives products throughout Europe, the firm said in a statement on Wednesday. The entity is expected to become operational later this year, once the exchange gets approval … Read more
Despite recent acknowledgements by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on several spot crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications, the agency is unlikely to make any decisions approving these products until its leadership is settled. “I would have been very very surprised if they approved any of these filings before [Paul] Atkins was confirmed at their … Read more
The long-running legal showdown between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could soon reach a resolution, Fox Business reported, citing “two well-placed sources.” The case, which has dragged on since December 2020 when the SEC accused Ripple of raising over $1.3 billion through unregistered sales of its closely related XRP token, … Read more